Ex-TEPCO execs unlikely to be indicted over Fukushima meltdown

Japanese prosecutors are expected again not to indict senior executives of the utility operating the Fukushima nuclear power plant with negligence over the facility’s devastation in the 2011 quake and tsunami disaster.

The three former
officials of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) are Tsunehisa
Katsumata, 74, company chairman at the time of the disaster, and
two former vice-presidents – Sakae Muto, 64, and Ichiro Takekuro,
68.

The Tokyo District Prosecutors Office has been investigating the
case after a citizen’s panel ruled in July that the three former
senior officers should be indicted over their handling of the
aftermath of the quake and deaths and injuries caused by it.

The final decision of the office is expected early next year, but
according to Kyodo news agency and the newspaper Yomiuri the
three former executives would not face charges.

Last year prosecutors declined to charge more than 30 government
and TEPCO officials with negligence in responding to the
disaster.

If the prosecutors decide again not to press charges, the panel
called Prosecutorial Review Commission (PRC) can overrule that,
if eight of its 11 unidentified members vote for it.

Such panels are a rarely used feature of the Japanese legal
system. They were introduced in 1948 as a mechanism to curb
negligence. PRCs are similar to grand juries, but their decisions
were non-binding until 2009, when their authority was increased
by new legislation.

TEPCO itself is facing a number of lawsuits demanding to pay
damages relating to the Fukushima disaster. In a first ruling of
this kind, a court in August ordered the company to pay $500,000
to a Fukushima Province resident, whose wife suffered severe
depression in the wake of the nuclear incident and committed
suicide. Before the ruling the company reportedly settled several
similar cases out of court.

The Fukushima nuclear incident was the worst ever after
Chernobyl. The Japanese government and TEPCO are expected to be
dealing with its consequences for decades to come, as the
crippled facility and melted reactors are being contained and the
surrounding areas decontaminated from radiation.

The incident caused few injuries, especially compared to the
quake and tsunami disaster that caused it, but it forced some
300,000 people to be evacuated and left a messy legacy of health
risks and public fear of nuclear power, which forced a long-time
freeze of Japan’s nuclear industry.